


I Think We're Alone Now

by ladivvinatravestia



Series: Trick or Treat 2020 [4]
Category: The Witcher (TV)
Genre: Dungeon Crawl, F/M, Manhunt - Freeform, Whump, effects of colonialism, mentioned child sexual assault, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 15:49:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26830135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladivvinatravestia/pseuds/ladivvinatravestia
Summary: Ciri and Dara run from the frying pan and into the fire.
Relationships: Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon/Dara
Series: Trick or Treat 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1950247
Kudos: 10





	I Think We're Alone Now

**Author's Note:**

> For whumptober prompts buried alive, collapsed building, and chains. Ciri has not yet studied any bestiaries at the time this story is set; the thing that pursues her and Dara toward the end of the fic is a shaelmaar.
> 
> Edit: I’m sorry, I forgot to mention that at one point, Dara uses ableist language as a general insult against Ciri.

The black knight with feathers on his helmet appears again on the crest of the hill and Ciri grabs Dara’s hand.

“Shit, he’s still following us! We have to keep going, come on!”

She tugs, and he follows her lead, breaking into a run.

“What does he want with you?” he asks.

A cold curl of fear settles in Ciri’s gut. “What do men ever want with young girls in war?” she says, and keeps pulling him along.

Dara shudders, but he says, “No, but this one keeps coming after you. He must think you’re special or something.”

The fear spreads further through Ciri’s veins, but she doesn’t want to say any more than she needs to.

“I don’t know,” she lies.

The black knight’s hoofbeats sound closer.

Ahead of Ciri and Dara lies only dense, dark forest - uncertain danger. But behind them, the black knight who definitely means Ciri hamr. And who, she suspects, won’t hesitate to discard Dara if he’s inconveniently in the way.

“Come on!” she hisses, and pulls Dara further into the forest.

They plunge on into the darkness, stumbling over fallen branches, the sound of hoofbeats getting ever closer behind them. Then Ciri takes a step and feels the solid ground dropping away beneath her - not just a few inches, but a drop that makes her heart leap into her throat. She barely has time to bite back a shriek before she and Dara are landing with a heavy thud on a dusty tile floor. Dara groans and Ciri rolls off of him, hacking and coughing. She clutches her ribcage and squeezes her eyes shut. Everything hurts. They’re away from the black knight, but where are they now?

“Ugh,” says Dara.

Ciri sits up and blinks. “Are you alright?” she asks.

“Are you crazy?” responds Dara.

“Do you want to be captured by that man?” says Ciri.

“I wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for you,” Dara grumbles, sitting up.

Ciri swallows, trying to get the dust out of her mouth, and brushing off her sleeves and skirt. She casts an eye around, trying to determine where they’ve landed. An eerie green glow emanates from nowhere in particular, casting a dim light on mossy flagstones covered in ruble. She can make out faint botanical designs under the grime on the tiles.

“An elven ruin?” she guesses.

“Just another part of the Lioness’ great legacy,” mutters Dara, and Ciri feels vaguely guilty. Why didn’t she know that all of her Gran’s accomplishments were so disliked by so many Cintrans? Why didn’t she know how many elves and dwarves were suffering under her Gran’s rule?

“Right,” she says, putting that in the back of her head to deal with later. “We need to find our way out of here.”

She takes a step away from where she and Dara landed and the glow seems to follow her. She looks around but everything beyond him is too dim to see. “Any ideas?” she asks. Her Gran had been teaching her combat, but nothing of scouting or wilderness survival.

Dara struggles to his feet, but he looks to be favouring one ankle heavily. Shit. Maybe if they can find a bigger chamber, a little further away from where they fell in, they can rest up for a bit before trying to find their way out. She reaches out to steady him.

“Right, let’s try - this way,” she says, pointing in an arbitrary direction. “We needn’t go too fast.”

Above her, she hears a man barking orders in Nilfgaardian. “Well, spread out, they can’t have got much further than this!”

“Maybe a bit faster,” grimaces Dara. “Come on, let’s go.”

She feels like she must be taking most of his weight as they head steadily away from the meagre light coming in from the forest above. At some point, they pass through an arched doorway in a wall and onto a long walkway, tilting at an unnerving angle. It’s too dark to see what lies below, but whatever it is is making unsettling skittering noises. Ciri freezes and looks at Dara. He shrugs. The skittering grows louder. Behind them, heavy footfalls sound in the chamber, suggesting that some of the soldiers have actually followed Ciri and Dara into the ruins.

“Princess!” one calls. “We know you’re in here!”

“Princess?!” hisses Dara.

“Not now!” Ciri hisses back. “Can you keep moving?”

Dara gives a curt nod and they keep moving, as silently as they can. Below them, the skittering gives way to excited chittering.

“Princess….” calls the Nilfgaardian again. His tone is like a cross between calling a cat and trying to get someone into his bed and it makes Ciri’s skin crawl.

“Faster, unless you want to get caught,” says Dara, through gritted teeth. They move faster.

The walkway takes a sudden, further tilt away from the horizontal. Ciri and Dara grip each other tighter. The chittering grows higher in pitch. Then Dara hisses in a sharp intake of breath and Ciri feels her footing giving way underneath her in a sudden clattering fall of rubble. She grabs for Dara again and tries to roll them away from the worst of the larger rocks as they fall.

Smaller rocks continue to fall on them as they come to rest on the cavern floor and they lie there, holding each other and breathing shallowly as their eyes adjust to the darkness. The same dim light continues to emanate, but less strongly than it did when they were still in the ruins. Ciri can see the natural rock of the cavern floor, moss, some really disgustingly large mushrooms, bleached-out bones she thinks are human, and, shambling towards her and Dara, some kind of ...rock...creature? It has a giant hunched back, no discernible neck or head, and two vicious front limbs, shaped halfway between shovels and a crab’s pincers. It’s dragging a broken chain from one of its hind limbs, and its chitters grow even louder as it advances slowly towards them.

“What the fuck is  _ that?! _ ” hisses Dara.

The thing stops. Ciri and Dara look at one another, then scramble to their feet and attempt to make a break for it - there’s a crumbling archway near the part of the walkway that they fell off of that  _ might _ shelter them from the creature - but as soon as they start running, the thing appears to pinpoint their location and it charges them, its speed terrifyingly fast.

Ciri has no time to do anything but grab Dara in a tight hug, bury her face in his shoulder, and think about how desperately she wishes she was anywhere else -

\- Dara brings his hands tentatively up to Ciri’s shoulders and she opens her eyes to see that they’re no longer facing down imminent, chittery death. Instead, clear moonlight shines from overhead and they’re surrounded on three sides by a decaying elven ruin, the bare ribs of its arches soaring high into the night sky.

“What - happened?” she asks shakily.

Dara pushes her out to arms’ length and looks at her suspiciously. “I was hoping you could tell me that,” he says.

“N-no,” says Ciri, looking wildly around. Where are they and how did they get here?

Dara sinks to the floor to sit cross-legged. It’s controlled, but Ciri hasn’t forgotten his injured leg. He motions for her to sit. “I trusted you,” he says. “Now I think it’s time for you to start explaining a few things to me.”

Ciri sighs and sits to face him. “I’ll explain everything I can,” she says.

**Author's Note:**

> Visit me on [tumblr](https://ladivvinatravestia.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
